Chinatown was situated about one mile from the center of town on one of the numerous beaches that line the Bay of Monterey. It was admirably selected for the business carried on by its inhabitants—fishing and abalone-shell shipping. Its citizens were frugal, industrious, and well behaved. Little or no crime occurred among them.

The census of Chinatown in 1875, was as follows: Man Lee Company, three men and three women; Sun Sing Company, three men, two women, and three children; Yek Lee Company, six men, two women, and one child; Yee Lee Company, six men, two women, and three children; Man Sing Company, four men and one woman; Sun Choy Lee Company, eleven men and one woman; Bow Lee Company, eight men, and Dai Lee Company, eight men. There were about twenty men and eight women outside of these different companies in different employment in the town and neighborhood.

The Chinese fished for rockfish, cod, halibut, flounders, red and blue fish, yellow-tail, mackerel, sardines, and shell-fish, the greater part of which were split open, salted and dried in the sun for exportation to San Francisco, whence they found their way to the mines throughout the State, and abroad. The amount of dried fish exported from Monterey at that time was estimated to be nearly 100 tons annually. They collected, also, large quantities of abalone shells, which found a ready market at $20 a ton. They possessed about thirty boats, nearly all of which were built by themselves, and were sailed in the Chinese fashion.